Indie Fest hits Garden Grove

As an actor working in Los Angeles, Luis Robledo was tired of always being cast as a Hispanic gang member in films.

So he began writing his own movies.

“El Taxista” made its debut in 2008 at Indie Fest USA, winning the festival’s award for best short film.

His most recent film, “The Retreat,” will make its debut at this year’s Indie Fest, which will be held in downtown Garden Grove beginning next Thursday and running through that Sunday (Oct. 24-27).

Robledo co-wrote, directed and edited “The Retreat,” which was produced with actors and financing from the Center for the Cinematic Arts, a Los Angeles independent film production and education cooperative.

“The thing I love about Indie Fest is it feels like a family,” he said. “Most festivals are corporate entities, but these guys give you the impression they love filmmaking and really appreciate what we do.”

Organized crime, immigration and a British teen making her dreams come true in Los Angeles. Those topics – and many more – will be featured during the Indie Fest USA International Film Festival of Garden Grove. The festival will feature hundreds of actors, filmmakers, critics and film fans who will gather in Garden Grove to celebrate independent cinema.

Indie Fest will feature 85 films, none with a budget of more than $100,000, in such genres as documentary, horror, foreign language, drama, musical and music videos. There will also be movie-making workshops and seminars. The festival will feature live music on a stage in Village Green Park and gourmet food trucks.

An inflatable screen will be set up in the park for free movie screenings. Other screenings will be $8.

Founded in 2006, the festival was held in Los Angeles and Anaheim before moving to Garden Grove three years ago. All three organizers live in Garden Grove.

“We wanted to do more of community-based festival in Orange County, because that’s where we lived,” said Ray Gibb, who started the festival with Don Taylor. “Los Angeles was oversaturated with film festivals.”

With about 500 people expected each day for the four-day event, this year is expected to be the festival’s largest.

Films will be shown at the Gem Theater and Festival Amphitheater, along with The Globe and the Savori (the former 7 Seas) restaurants along Main Street. An award ceremony will be held Sunday.

The Gem was partially destroyed by a fire in May 2011, and next weekend’s screenings will be the first public events at the historic theater since the fire.

About 400 films were submitted and reviewed by the festival’s selection committee and 75 films made the cut. Another 10 student films were accepted from Cineladies, a collective of female film creators and actors.

Josh McIntosh, a local civic activist, signed on this year to work as the festival’s executive director, working to secure sponsorships, screening space and support from City Hall. Aside from celebrating interpedently produced and financed films, the festival is a chance to re-ignite economic and cultural activity on Main Street, McIntosh said.

“We have what you would call a sleepy downtown that needs reinvigoration,” McIntosh said. “The first step to bring back life is to get those theaters open.”

The festival will officially open next Thursday with a screening of “Operation Amnesty for All,” an experimental film examining immigration issues in America, at 6 p.m. at the Savori.

Also premiering is “Mobster,” a film created by Brian Johnson, an Encino resident who used the found-footage technique popularized in recent films like the “Paranormal Activity franchise,” “Project X,” “Cloverfield” and “The Bay” to boost the film’s feel of authenticity while cutting costs.

Johnson wrote and produced “Ranchero,” a film featured in the festival in 2008 that won the festival’s top prize. He said community-based festivals give filmmakers the opportunity to screen movies to a wide audience that may have never made it to the screen otherwise. It also provides a chance to get films exposed to critics, potential financiers and distributors, he added.

“It’s all about exposure,” Johnson said. “You can create the greatest film in the world, but if no one knows about it, then it doesn’t matter.”

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